


Teen Wolf, Season 2, Episode 7, Restraint

by TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Analysis, Episode Review, Episode: s02e07 Restraint, Meta, Nonfiction, Season/Series 02, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-03
Updated: 2018-10-03
Packaged: 2019-07-24 18:32:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16180796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer/pseuds/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer
Summary: Warning: Contains spoilers for the episode and the rest of the series. Complete.





	Teen Wolf, Season 2, Episode 7, Restraint

Open to night time. A couple is arguing in a trailer, and the trailer is near a body of water.

K-Jackson kills the man, but stymied by the woman’s pregnant belly, he spares her.

After the credits, Allison is talking to Stiles and Scott over speaker about Jackson being in a fugue state when he’s a kanima.

There’s a shot of Jackson sitting in his bedroom with blood on his hands and arms, he takes a shower, and then, he sleeps with the camera pointed at him. A gloved hand rests on the camera.

She thinks Jackson might not talk to them after the whole kidnapping thing, but Stiles insists he will.

Cue Scott and Stiles being served a restraining order by Sheriff S and Mr Whittemore. Melissa is also present.

Why isn’t Allison part of this? Jackson didn’t talk to her during the kidnapping, but he did hear her talking to them. I really doubt Mr Whittemore would be stopped by taking action against her due to her being a girl. The Argents could retain a great lawyer for her, and I believe there’s a good chance they might, but 1. if they found out she was with both Scott and Stiles, she’d be in huge trouble, and 2. this would probably clue them into the fact Jackson is the kanima. Unlike with Sheriff S, Melissa, and the Whittemore’s, they’d know this was unlikely to be a prank gone too far on her end.

If Jackson didn’t tell his father she was part of it, why not?

Matt’s influence is a possibility, but this is one of those areas where I wish the show would eventually clear things up.

After this, they all leave the room, and Sheriff S makes clear his displeasure at Stiles known.

Melissa tries to punish Scott, he keeps pointing out why her punishments won’t work, and finally, she declares, “No Stiles!”

Hearing this, a nearby Stiles is more upset over this than Scott is. In fact, Scott is more upset over the lose of car privileges than this.

Posey and Ponzio do a great job with a moment where Melissa can’t get the keys off the keyring and Scott puts his hands over hers. She emotionally asks what’s going on with him. She asks if this is about Allison.

Amusingly, behind her, Stiles shakes his head in warning, as if Scott needs to be reminded not to incriminate his secret girlfriend who has somehow managed to not be named by Jackson.

She asks if it’s about his father, and Stiles nods his yes. However, Posey does great with Scott’s expression here. Scott hasn’t liked his dad in a long time, and he doesn’t like the idea of his behaviour being attributed to him.

Declaring they’ll talk more at home, Melissa goes to get the car, and Scott and Stiles witness Mr Whittemore raging at Sheriff S over Stiles’s mocking behaviour.

Also, there’s a deputy behind them that, she may not be have the exact shade/tone of skin Tara Graeme had, but I do think she’s a young, black woman. This only serves to remind me that here was another great opportunity for the show to either introduce or, at least, mention her.

And yet, it doesn’t.

There’s a shot of Jackson waiting for his dad with a smirk on his face.

At the train station, Derek says either Isaac or Erica needs to get on either Stiles or Scott’s good side. Isaac is worried about the full moon approaching, and when Derek produces chains, Isaac reminds him of his promise to teach them to change whenever they wanted.

“There hasn’t been time.”

Yeah, he was too busy ordering a hit on a sixteen-year-old girl.

Again, Derek’s determination to kill the person turning into the kanima is morally gray rather than outright evil, but getting sixteen-year-olds to try to kill a classmate and passing a judgement on whether said classmate is guilty after only performing one test isn’t good.

I’m not saying this as insult against Isaac, but: There is a possibility he did something to screw up the test in the first place. It’s also possible Harris or someone else in the classroom did something to intentionally or unintentionally screw it up.

Isaac emotionally points out, if they have to be locked up, he’ll be all alone against the Argents. Aw.

More focused on his pack than the innocent people dying, Isaac suggests they forget about the kanima for right now. However, due to Derek’s feelings about the Argents, him witnessing the way Gerard reacted to K-Jackson has made it so that he won’t stop until everything is figured out and the kanima’s gone.

I get where Isaac’s coming from. He’d rather focus on his family than a serial killer. Not only was I the same when I was sixteen, I’m the same now. If there’s ever a serial killer running around my area, I’m going to try to keep myself and my family safe until people actually trained in dealing with serial killers can either capture or otherwise stop them.

Him being a werewolf doesn’t automatically grant him with some duty to defend people. Derek makes it clear later in the series that Talia taught him the Hales were supposed to be protectors of the town, but aside from the fact Talia is a rather shady character who might have been involved in some bad stuff herself, one family of werewolves being protectors doesn’t necessarily mean all werewolves should or even can be protectors.

In the school library, Allison is wearing stripes, and a camera is creepily following her. She talks to Scott and Stiles through some shelves. Scott is still wearing stripes, too.

Sliding Lydia’s translation to them, she says she told Lydia they were part of an online gaming community that battles mythical creatures, and it turns out Stiles actually is part of such a community. Heh.

It turns out, a kanima is supposed to be a werewolf but can’t until it resolves whatever big issues it has.

Stiles amuses me by saying Jackson needing tons of therapy was something he could have called even without the whole kanima thing, and Allison irritates me by bringing up Jackson’s “real parents”.

Mr Whittemore did everything in his power to find his son even when he couldn’t be sure Jackson was actually missing. Despite his discomfort, he was uncomfortably honest with Sheriff S, because, making sure his child was safe was more important than keeping family issues private. Even with his anger, I imagine he did believe a horrible prank was all that happened, and this is why he didn’t insist on pressing charges. However, even without pressing charges, he still tried his best to make sure his son would be safe and not have to deal with the people who targeted him again.

Mrs Whittemore has been shown even less, but with what little has been shown, the audience can reasonably infer she loves Jackson, too.

If Jackson’s parents both died when he was a baby, then, calling both them and the Whittemore’s his parents is fine, but if they gave him up for adoption, they’re not his parents. His real parents are the ones who made a commitment to raise and always love him.

To make it clear: I am absolutely not saying anything against people who choose to give a child up for adoption, and people who’ve been forced to give a baby up have my deepest sympathies. I’m simply saying, once it’s done, the child is no longer theirs. Biologically, they’ll always be a parent, but legally and in other ways, they are no longer a parent to that child.

Moving on, Allison points out Jackson doesn’t have a restraining order against her, though, why exactly isn’t discussed. Since he doesn’t, she’s going to talk to him on her own.

There’s a cute moment where she and Scott hold hands through the shelves.

In an empty classroom, Jackson either consumes a snake live or has a hallucination of doing so. I really hope it’s the latter.

Alone with Harris, Scott begins taking a make-up test.

At the McCall house, Melissa has on different scrubs than last episode. Trying to resist the temptation to snoop in Scott’s room, she fails. What she finds is a box of condoms with only one condom left.

Ponzio does great at making all this comedic, and good on the show for making it clear the teenagers are being responsible with their safety.

At school, Scott is taking his test, and Allison is creepily following Jackson around. She almost follows him into the boy’s locker room, but Matt appears. He tries to flirt, she’s distant, and then, he asks her to go to a rave with him.

She agrees without fully realising what she’s doing. Mainly, she’s focused on ending the conversation so that she can go back to stalking Jackson.

Meanwhile, Stiles is following Lydia around to try to get answers about Jackson, and Erica is following him around.

In the locker room, the shower’s running, and thankfully, she warns any potentially naked boys who had the crazy idea no girl would see them in such a state at school of her presence by calling for Jackson.

He calls her over, and she goes.

Thankfully, he’s the only boy around.

Unthankfully, he’s naked.

“You’re the one who walked into the boy’s locker room,” he points out.

True. This is on her. She went into the one area of school where boys being naked is both acceptable, and in some instances, to be expected.

What isn’t on her is him cornering her with his naked body.

Again, this would most likely be Matt’s influence, but I’m not sure why it would be at play here. Allison just agreed to go on a date with him. He was happy when he walked away.

Could it be Gerard starting to creep in?

In the hallway, Erica corners Stiles, and pointing out the cameras, he gets her to put her claws away. “That’s right. You wanna play Catwoman, I’ll be your Batman.”

Also, Erica also refers to Jackson’s biological parents as his “real” ones.

He starts to leave, but she tells him Jackson’s supposed parents are in Beacon Hills’ Cemetery.

Jackson’s biological mother is likely dead, then, but even if her husband/SO is dead, too, this doesn’t necessarily mean his biological father is dead. Said biological father could be teaching chemistry or only temporarily dead for the moment.

In the locker room, Jackson physically menaces Allison.

Over in Harris’s, Scott realises Allison is danger.

In the hallway, Erica realises Stiles is trying to figure out the details of Jackson’s adoption, because, the kanima actually is Jackson.

Two tests Derek administered were wrong. Is this the point Erica starts having doubts about him? She’s loyal, but frankly, Derek didn’t deserve any of their loyalty. She and Boyd didn’t just up and decide to leave in Battlefield sans nothing, and it was more than just the Argents and K-Jackson.

Back with Scott, upon realising the girlfriend he’s so gung-ho about protecting is in danger, he has time to be a smart alec when Harris says he’s not leaving until all the bubbles are filled in.

As far as Scott knows, Harris isn’t a werewolf or anything supernatural. He can run too fast for Harris to stop him, and if necessary, he could physically move Harris out of his way.

Instead of running like hell, he takes time to quickly fill in all the bubbles down the line.

Back in the locker room, using misogynistic language, Jackson puts his clawed hands near her neck, and she fights back.

This ends up with her trapped on the floor underneath him, but good for her for actually trying.

In addition, whatever or whoever was influencing Jackson recedes for the moment. He’s confused to find himself naked on the floor with Allison underneath him.

Barging in, Scott tosses Jackson into some lockers, thankfully, after Jackson has put on something to cover his genitals. From what I’ve seen, Haynes really likes Jackson’s line of, “I have a restraining order!”

Personally, I think he could have done without so much ham-and-cheese during the delivery.

Fighting, they destroy the locker room in the process.

In the hallway, Stiles tries to convince Erica not to tell Derek. When he says her alpha bite makeover doesn’t give her license to go around destroying people, Golightly does great with Erica’s bitterness and vulnerability. “Why not? That’s all anybody ever used to do to me.”

Then, she confesses to having had a crush on him for a long time, and if not for Boyd, I could ship these two together.

Stiles does hear her, he’s not distracted when she says this, but he doesn’t get a chance to take this in due to the fact water from the locker room is leaking into the hall.

Scott and Jackson tumble out, and Erica restrains Jackson. Stiles and Allison keep Scott back, a nearby Matt picks up the tablet with the information about the kanima. He sends the information to himself, and Harris appears. He gives all six of them detention, and I’m with Matt’s expression. Sure, he’s a serial killer, his serial killing is what contributed to this situation happening, and Harris is just doing his usual shtick of guiding Stiles and the others closer to the truth in the most jerkish way possible, but from a uninformed person’s POV, all he did was hand a kid who did something wrong the kid’s tablet back.

Meanwhile, Victoria is watching security footage when, doing what a normal parent who’d like to talk to another parent would do, though wearing different scrubs than she was earlier this episode, Melissa comes in to ask to speak to her.

It would have been politer to call or, at least, come in after school hours, but still, there’s no self-harming with a big knife.

On another note, for some reason, I liked the fact Victoria was going to page Scott to come talk to his mother when she thought Melissa was here to see him. She made a reasonable assumption, and despite her dislike for Scott, she was prepared to follow school protocol in dealing with a student and his parent.

In the hallway, Lydia and Junior are hanging out at her locker. He’d like to show her something after school, and he tells her to bring the flower he gave her.

After school, Harris makes Scott and Stiles move to a further table from Jackson’s when Jackson brings up the restraining order.

Matt reads about the kanima to himself, and Allison is uneasy.

Meanwhile, Melissa and Victoria talk, and Victoria is rude and vaguely slut-shaming in hoping Scott is having sex with someone other than her daughter. Melissa knows, like it or not, it’s Scott and Allison, and she’s a good, responsible parent who, regardless of her other feelings on the subject, is happy protection is being used.

She’s having this conversation, in fact, because, she wants to make sure their kids continue being safe.

Victoria insincerely agrees she, too, wants the werewolf who is touching her daughter and could possibly, even with the condoms, get said daughter pregnant with a potentially werewolf grandbaby to continue being safe as opposed to dead.

Back to the library. I’m not sure whether it’s a gif or just a caption, but someone made an awesome post about the silent exchange where Matt offers Jackson some chips. I really wish I could find it again.

Stiles posits the theory Matt could be controlling the kanima, and Scott is dismissive.

There are times Stiles is wrong about people being a threat and times when he fails to recognise when someone else is a threat, but Scott should probably start listening more when Stiles is suspicious of people before Stiles ends up being right about someone who orchestrates Scott’s temporary murder.

Jackson gets a headache, and a concerned Harris follows him out of the library.

As soon as Harris is out, Scott and Stiles come to sit with Erica. It turns out her dad is an insurance investigator, and she knows from him, Jackson is going to gain some serious money from his biological parents’ estate when he turns eighteen. They were killed in a car accident. She offers to find out more from her dad’s emails.

Then, Victoria calls Scott to the office.

In the bathroom, a snake comes out of Jackson’s eye before slithering down the drain. Again, I hope this was a hallucination.

At Lydia’s, she tries to find the flower. Eventually, she ends up barefoot outside, and there’s nearby fog.

Over to the library, both Allison and Matt notice a returned Jackson’s sweating.

Stiles is reading the reports Erica is showing him. They realise Jackson was born after his biological mother died.

Harris packs to leave, and he laughs at the reasonable belief this was the teenagers’ cue to pack up, too. No, they aren’t leaving until some books are re-shelved.

Because, this is enforceable. Yes, he can get them to put books on shelves, but if they don’t shelve them properly, there’s a chance no one is going to realise this, and even if there are complaints about a significant number of books being miscategorised, he can’t accurately accuse any one of them of doing this. They could all say, ‘I did it right, maybe, one of the others moved them once I did,’ and this can’t be disproven.

I understand this is his way of dickishly guiding, but I’ve known some bad teachers in my time, and the ones at Beacon Hills High puts them all to shame.

Over in the office, Victoria is sharpening pencils. She asks if he’s having sex with Allison, he denies it, and she makes it clear, if she ever finds out otherwise, it won’t be pleasant for him.

She could have done this without wasting pencils.

Elsewhere, barefoot Lydia is walking through the fog. She comes up to the Hale house in all it’s former glory, and not bothering to knock or ring the doorbell, she lets herself in.

At school, there’s a lingering shot of Harris’s eyes in the rearview mirror, and it’s shown his car was the one that met K-Jackson last episode.

Inside, Stiles is talking to Scott and Allison about how Jackson’s biological parents might have been murdered, Erica is actually doing the work, and Matt is concerned about Jackson.

Jackson is receiving messages in place of book titles. The messages insist he close his eyes.

Scott goes to talk to Jackson, and he finds an unconscious Matt with a scratch on his neck. K-Jackson starts tearing up the library, and in a good move, Scott calls for fellow werewolf Erica to help him.

Stiles protects Allison from falling books.

Before Erica can do anything, however, K-Jackson paralyses her.

Then, a not fully transformed K-Jackson writes on a board: Stay out of my way, or I’ll kill all of you.

He leaves, and they see Erica is having a seizure. Allison establishes Matt is alive, and holding Erica, Stiles says they need to get her to a hospital. She insists on being taken to Derek instead.

Scott wants to stay with Allison, but Allison is sensible and kind. Respecting Erica’s decision, she points out Stiles can’t take Erica alone. On her end, Matt needs an ambulance, and she’s not going to leave an unconscious person all alone.

The security camera takes in the ruined library, and when Scott carries a seizing Erica out with Stiles, it follows.

Over at the Hale house of old, Junior appears. I’m not sure if what Lydia is seeing and the audience are is the same.

The house is completely empty, and the floors are odd. Clearly, it’s not currently fit for another live in it.

Yet, she asks, “Is this your house?”

“It was.” He inquires about the flower.

She admits to not having it, and this clearly bothers her.

Telling her it’s okay, he tries for a kiss again, and this time, she lets him.

There’s a mirror, and when she looks in it, she sees burned Peter and the true inside of the burnt Hale house.

How did dead Peter know there weren’t currently any hunters in or around the house? Or were he and she both just lucky? There’s nothing to suggest Lydia herself knew Chris and others were hanging out around the house.

At the train station, Derek physically hurts Erica, and he explains, mostly to Stiles, this is how to trigger the healing process.

For all my issues with Derek this season, he does genuinely care about the betas. He’s just often bad at expressing this the right way. Here, if there is a better way, he doesn’t know it. This isn’t punishment. It’s sort of the equivalent of holding a kid down for a shot. It isn’t pleasant, but it’s done to protect or help them heal.

Erica understands. She’s been sick for a large chunk of her life.

Stiles cares, and until it’s explained, he sees an alpha cruelly hurting a beta.

Once a drained but stable, non-paralysed Erica expresses her fond thanks, “Stiles, you make a good batman,” he begins to understand Derek isn’t just doing this for power.

Scott, however, doesn’t.

Later, he and Derek go outside of the train, and he says Derek just wanted Erica to confirm the kanima was actually Jackson.

Then, he says he’s now part of Derek’s pack, but only if Derek helps him catch, not kill, Jackson.

Suspicious but hopeful, Derek agrees.

At the hospital, Melissa has changed scrubs yet again. This is three times in one episode.

The woman from the pre-credits scene has given birth. When the baby’s taken away, she shows fear for her life, but assuring her the baby’s fine, Melissa attributes her description of what killed her husband/SO to shock and trauma.

When the woman falls back into sleep, Melissa quietly leaves.

Appearing, an unseen Matt kills her, because, one victim of attempted murder dying in the hospital wasn't enough. This woman's husband/SO was killed, and even if she's not a suspect, she's made it clear she believes she's still in danger. The fact she believes it's from an inhuman creature doesn't matter. The cops don't know who it could be. A killer is at large, and they have no reason to believe she's not in special danger from said killer. 

On a lesser note, how does she have a private room? She was living in a trailer and arguing with her husband/SO about how much their life sucked. How is she affording this?

Changing the subject, why didn’t Matt try using K-Jackson again? K-Jackson couldn’t/refused when she was pregnant, but she’s not pregnant anymore. The baby isn’t going to be physically affected by her death at this point, and Matt never shows any indication of caring one way or another about the baby. He didn’t care if he or she was lost in a miscarriage, but there’s no indication he wants the baby hurt now that it’s been born.

He’d go against Isaac if necessary, but there’s never been any indication he specifically wants to hurt Isaac now. He and Isaac were sort of friends, and he knows Isaac isn’t responsible for what Coach Lahey and Camden did.

Is it that her being a mother is imprinted in K-Jackson’s mind? Jackson knows Coach Lahey was a father, but it’s possible he viewed said monster as nothing like a real father would be and that this influenced K-Jackson. It’s later established none of the later victims are younger than their early twenties. Some of them could have kids, too.

Back at the Hale house, Peter is annoyingly sadistic and horribly sexually menacing. Admitting she was his planned backup,he makes it clear, if she doesn’t do what he wants, he’ll even further destroy her life.

He disappears, and she finds the flower in her hands.

The final shot is of Peter buried beneath the floorboards.

Fin.


End file.
